The World-Wide Web (the Web) is composed of a vast number of uniquely addressed "pages" of information available on the Internet. The unique addresses, conventionally known as Universal Resource Locators (URLs), make it easy to establish links between related pages. Information on a given page may be linked to related information on a second page by providing a "link" specifying the URL of the second page. Such links are typically represented as highlighted text or graphic representations that may be selected using a mouse-type pointer (a "mouse"). Users move between pages on the Internet by selecting links according to the user's interest.
Suppose for instance that a user is viewing a page maintained by a bookstore and happened upon a discussion of bicycling, and further suppose that the discussion includes a link to another page containing further information on bicycling. Such a link could be identified by the term "bicycling" being highlighted within the text of the bookstore page. The user could then select the "bicycling" link to view the page of information pointed to by the "bicycling" link. This bicycling page may include, for example, a list of bike shops. Similarly, the user could select a link on the "list of bike shops" page and move to another related page, such as a page related to a specific bike shop. This method of moving from page to page on the Internet in search of information is commonly referred to as "surfing the Net."
In the foregoing example, an owner of a bike shop might view the bookstore's "list of bike shops" page and desire to have a link included on that page pointing to a page maintained by the owner's bike shop. Customers could then be referred to the bike shop from the bookstore's pages. Conventionally, the owner of the bike shop contacts the bookstore, for example, via electronic-mail (e-mail), telephone, or mail, and requests that a link to the bike shop be included in the bookstore's "list of bike shops" page. An individual at the bookstore might then manually edit the "list of bike shops" page to add a link to the bike shop.
In return for providing a link to the bike shop, the bookstore would likely require a link from the bike shop back to the bookstore so that users accessing bike-shop pages would be referred to the bookstore (for example, to search for books on bicycling). To accomplish such a return link, the bookstore would typically communicate with the bike shop to specify an address of a page of the bookstore to which the bike store should provide a link.
Unfortunately, it is possible that either the bookstore and/or the bike shop will neglect to establish the agreed upon links. Further, the tasks of communicating between the bike shop and bookstore and manually adding links are time consuming. A more equitable and less time consuming method of establishing reciprocal links between pages is therefore desired.